Control or Surrender
It seems in my life, and perhaps in yours, that I am constantly torn between control and surrender. The most fruitful times in my life have been times of surrender. The happiest times in my life have been times of surrender. But we cannot just surrender to everything and everyone.
Knowing when to surrender is the challenge. But control seems to be mostly ego driven, and surrender seems to be mostly Spirit driven. So, wherever you are in your journey, whatever it is that is happening in your life right now, this month I want to encourage you to explore the area of your life that God might be inviting you to surrender. One thing is certain; it is always the right time to surrender to God.
2. Foster A Spirit of Service
The most effective parents are always looking for new ways to engage their children in their own development. Parents can call on one of the great management advances of all times... management by results. Explain a vision, and allow them to use their skills and resources to accomplish it. You are of course part of their resources. If they get stuck or don't know what to do, they can call on you - and good managers clearly communicate that. Management by results creates independent workers who can think and act for themselves, and who know who and where to turn when they don't know how to handle a situation. Great managers make their workers independent and themselves dispensable. As a parent, your job is to make yourself dispensable. At the core of parenting is the difficult and complex task of nurturing a child's ability to choose and decide and act for him or herself.
There are few more powerful ways to nurture these skills, values, and character than to foster and encourage a spirit of service. We are not here for ourselves. We are not in this alone. We are here, in this place and this time, to experience each other and to act in communion with each other for the good of each other. Yes, we are also here to discover and celebrate our unique selves. But paradoxically, the best way to find and celebrate our true selves is to spend our lives in the service of worthy causes and other people.
Service awakens our sense of self in a way that all the introspection and self-development in the world cannot. Nothing awakens the moral, ethical, and spiritual senses like the simple act of service. Foster a spirit of service in your children and you will find that long after you are gone it sill serves them in their quest to discover self, contribute to society, and live a life of love, laughter and happiness.
Mathew Kelly~ from Building Better Families